The project of a "Democratic Party" was often mentioned by Prodi as the natural evolution of The Olive Tree and was bluntly envisioned by Michele Salvati, a former centrist deputy of the DS, in an appeal in Il Foglio newspaper in April 2013.[16] The term Partito Democratico was used for the first time in a formal context by the DL and DS members of the Regional Council of Veneto, who chose to form a joint group named The Olive Tree – Venetian Democratic Party (L'Ulivo – Partito Democratico Veneto) in March 2007.[17]

The 2006 election result, anticipated by the 2005 primary election in which over four million voters endorsed Prodi as candidate for Prime Minister, gave a push to the project of a unified centre-left party. Eight parties agreed to merge into the PD:

While the DL agreed to the merger with virtually no resistance, the DS experienced a more heated final congress. On 19 April 2007 approximately 75% of party members voted in support of the merger of the DS into the PD. The left-wing opposition, led by Fabio Mussi, obtained just 15% of the support within the party. A third motion, presented by Gavino Angius and supportive of the PD only within the Party of European Socialists (PES), obtained 10% of the vote. During and following the congress, both Mussi and Angius announced their intention not to join the PD and founded a new party called Democratic Left (SD).

On 22 May 2007 the composition of the organising committee of the nascent party was announced. It featured 45 members, mainly politicians from the two aforementioned major parties and the leaders of the other six minor parties, but included also external figures such as Giuliano Amato, Marcello De Cecco, Gad Lerner, Carlo Petrini and Tullia Zevi.[18] On 18 June the committee met to decide the rules for the open election of the 2,400 members of the party's constituent assembly. Prodi announced each voter would choose between a number of lists, each of them associated with a candidate for secretary.

All candidates interested in running for the PD leadership had to be associated with one of the founding parties and present at least 2,000 valid signatures by 30 July 2007. A total of ten candidates officially registered their candidacy: Walter Veltroni, Rosy Bindi, Enrico Letta, Furio Colombo, Marco Pannella, Antonio Di Pietro, Mario Adinolfi, Pier Giorgio Gawronski, Jacopo Schettini, Lucio Cangini and Amerigo Rutigliano. Of these, Pannella and Di Pietro were rejected because of their involvement in external parties (the Radicals and Italy of Values respectively), whereas Cangini and Rutigliano did not manage to present the necessary 2,000 valid signatures for the 9pm deadline, and Colombo's candidacy was instead made into hiatus in order to give him 48 additional hours to integrate the required documentation; Colombo later decided to retire his candidacy citing his impossibility to fit with all the requirements.[19] All rejected candidates had the chance against the decision in 48 hours' time,[20] with Pannella and Rutigliano being the only two candidates to appeal against it.[21] Both were rejected on 3 August.[22]

On 14 October 2007 Veltroni was elected leader with about 75% of the national votes in an open primary attended by over three million voters.[23] Veltroni was proclaimed secretary during a party's constituent assembly held in Milan on 28 October 2007.[24]

On 21 November, the new logo was unveiled; it depicts the party acronym PD with colours reminiscent of the Italian tricolour flag (green, white and red) and features an olive branch, the historical symbol of The Olive Tree. In the words of Ermete Realacci, green represents the ecologist and social-liberal cultures, white is for the Catholic solidarity and red for the socialist and social-democratic traditions.[25] The "green-white-red" idea was coined by Schettini during his campaign.

After the premature fall of the Prodi II Cabinet in January 2008, the PD decided to form a less diverse coalition. The party invited the Radicals and the Socialist Party (PS) to join its lists, but only the Radicals accepted, and formed an alliance with Italy of Values (IdV), which was set to join the PD after the election. The PD included many notable candidates and new faces in its lists and Walter Veltroni, who tried to present the PD as the party of the renewal in contrast both with Silvio Berlusconi and the previous centre-left government, ran an intense and modern campaign, which led him to visit all provinces of Italy, but that was not enough.

In the 2008 general election on 13–14 April 2008 the PD–IdV coalition won 37.5% of the vote and was defeated by the centre-right coalition, composed of The People of Freedom (PdL), the Lega Nord and the Movement for the Autonomy (46.8%). The PD was able to absorb some votes from the parties of the far left (as also IdV did), but lost voters to the Union of the Centre (UdC), ending up with 33.2% of the vote, 217 deputies and 119 senators. After the election Veltroni, who was gratified by the result, formed a shadow cabinet. IdV, excited by its 4.4% which made it the fourth largest party in Parliament, refused to join both the Democratic groups and the shadow cabinet.

The early months after the election were a difficult time for the PD and Veltroni, whose leadership was weakened by the growing influence of internal factions, because of the popularity of Berlusconi and the dramatic rise of IdV in opinion polls.[26] IdV became a strong competitor of the PD and the relations between the two parties became tense. In the 2008 Abruzzo regional election the PD was forced to support IdV candidate Carlo Costantini.[27] In October Veltroni, who distanced from Di Pietro many times, declared that "on some issues he [Di Pietro] is distant from the democratic language of the centre-left".[28]

The 2009 European Parliament election was an important test for the PD. Prior to the election, the PD considered offering hospitality to the Socialist Party (PS) and the Greens in its lists, and proposed a similar pact to Democratic Left (SD).[31] However, the Socialists, the Greens and Democratic Left decided instead to contest the election together as a new alliance called Left and Freedom, which failed to achieve the 4% threshold required to return any MEPs, but damaged the PD, which gained 26.1% of the vote, returning 21 MEPs.

The national congress and the subsequent leadership primary were announced for October. By July three candidates announced their bid: Pier Luigi Bersani, Ignazio Marino and the outgoing secretary Dario Franceschini.

In the local congresses a 56.4% of party members voted and Bersani was by far the most voted candidate with 55.1% of the vote, largely ahead of Franceschini (37.0%) and Marino (7.9%).[32] On 25 October 2009, Bersani was elected new secretary of the party with about 53% of the vote in an open primary in which three million people participated. Franceschini got 34% and Marino 13%. On 7 November, during the first meeting of the new national assembly, Bersani was declared secretary, Rosy Bindi was elected party president (with Marina Sereni and Ivan Scalfarotto vice-presidents), Enrico Letta deputy secretary and Antonio Misiani treasurer.[33][34]

In reaction to the election of Bersani, perceived by some moderates as an old-style social democrat, Francesco Rutelli, a long-time critic of the party's course, and other centrists and liberals within the PD left in order to form a new centrist party, named Alliance for Italy (ApI).[35] Following March 2009, and especially after Bersani's victory, many deputies,[36] senators,[37] one MEP and several regional/local councillors[38] left the party to join the UdC, ApI and other minor parties: they included many Rutelliani and most Theo-Dems.

In the meantime, in the 2012 regional electionRosario Crocetta, a Democrat, was elected President with 30.5% of the vote thanks to the support of the UdC, but the coalition failed to secure an outright majority in the Regional Assembly.[53][54] For the first time in 50 years, a man of the left had the chance to govern Sicily.

On 25 November Bersani came ahead in the first round of the primary election with 44.9% of the vote, Renzi came second with 35.5%, followed by Vendola (15.6%), Puppato (2.6%) and Tabacci (1.4%). Bersani did better in the South, while Renzi prevailed in Tuscany, Umbria, and Marche.[55] In the subsequent run-off, on 2 December, Bersani trounced Renzi 60.9% to 39.1%, by winning in each and every single region but Tuscany, where Renzi won 54.9% of the vote. The PD secretary did particularly well in Lazio (67.8%), Campania (69.4%), Apulia (71.4%), Basilicata (71.7%), Calabria (74.4%), Sicily (66.5%), and Sardinia (73.5%).[56]

In the election the PD and its coalition fared much worse than expected and according to pollsters predictions. The PD won just 25.4% of the vote for the Chamber of Deputies (–8.0% from 2008) and the centre-left coalition narrowly won the majority in the house over the centre-right coalition (29.5% to 29.3%). Even worse, in the Senate the PD and its allies failed to get an outright majority, due to the rise of the Five Star Movement (M5S) and the centre-right's victory in key regions, such as Lombardy, Veneto, Campania, Apulia, Calabria and Sicily (the centre-right was awarded of the majority premium in those regions, leaving the centre-left with just a handful of elects there). Consequently, the PD-led coalition was unable to govern alone because it lacked a majority in the Senate, which has equal power to the Chamber. As a result, Bersani, who refused any agreement with the PdL and was rejected by the M5S, failed to form a government.

On 17 April, after an agreement with the centre-right parties, Bersani put forward Franco Marini as his party's candidate for President to succeed to Giorgio Napolitano. However, Renzi, several Democratic delegates and SEL announced that they would not support Marini.[57] On 18 April Marini received just 521 votes in the first ballot, short of the 672 needed,[58] as more than 200 centre-left delegates rebelled. On 19 April the PD and SEL selected Romano Prodi to be their candidate in the fourth ballot.[59] Despite his candidacy had received unanimous support among the two parties' delegates, Prodi obtained only 395 votes in the fourth ballot[58] as more than 100 centre-left electors did not vote for him.[60] After the vote, Prodi pulled out of the race and Bersani announced his resignation from party secretary.[61] Also Bindi, the party's president, announced her resignation as she did not want to carry responsibility for the party's bad management during the past weeks. The day after Napolitano accepted to stand again for election and was re-elected President with the support of most parliamentary parties.

After Bersani's resignation from party secretary on 20 April 2013, the PD remained without a leader for two weeks.

On 11 May 2013 at the national assembly of the party Guglielmo Epifani was elected secretary with 85.8% of vote. Epifani, secretary-general of the Italian General Confederation of Labour (CGIL), Italy's largest trade union, from 2002 to 2010, was the first former Socialist to lead the party. Epifani's mission was to lead the party toward a national congress in October.[62]

A few weeks after Epifani's election as secretary, the PD had a success in the 2013 local elections, winning in 69 comuni (including Rome and all the other 14 provincial capitals up for election), while the PdL won 22 and the M5S 1.[63]

On 9 November Epifani announced that the PD would organise the next congress of the Party of European Socialists (PES) in Rome in early 2014, sparking protests among some of the party's Christian democrats, who opposed PES membership.[64]

Epifani was however little more than a secretary pro tempore and, in fact, he frequently repeated that he was not going to run for a full term as secretary in the leadership race that would take place in late 2013, saying that his candidacy would be a betrayal of his mandate.[65][66][67][68] Four individuals filed their bid on 11 October: Matteo Renzi, Pippo Civati, Gianni Cuperlo and Gianni Pittella.[69]

As usual, the leadership race started with voting by party members in local conventions (7–17 November). Renzi came first with 45.3%, followed by Cuperlo (39.4%), Civati (9.4%) and Pittella (5.8%).[70] The first three were thus admitted to the open primary.

On 8 December Renzi, who won in all regions but was stronger in the Centre-North, trounced his opponents with 67.6% of the vote. Cuperlo, whose support was higher in the South, came second with 18.2%, while Civati, whose message did well with northern urban and progressive voters, third with 14.2%.[71] On 15 December Renzi, whose executive included many young people and a majority of women,[72] was proclaimed secretary by the party's national assembly, while Cuperlo was elected president, as proposed by Renzi.[73]

On 20 January 2014 Cuperlo criticized the electoral reform proposed by Renzi in agreement with Berlusconi, but the proposal was overwhelmingly approved by the party's national board.[74] The day after the vote, Cuperlo resigned from president.[75] He was later replaced by Matteo Orfini, who hailed from the party's left-wing, but since then became more and more supportive of Renzi.

After frequent calls by Renzi for a "new phase", on 13 February the national board decided to put an end to Letta's government and form a new one led by Renzi, as the latter had proposed.[76][77] Subsequently, on 22 February Renzi was sworn in as Prime Minister at the head of an identical coalition.[78] On 28 February the PD officially joined the PES as a full member,[79] ending a decade-long debate.

In local conventions Renzi came first (66.7%), Orlando second (25.3%), Emiliano third (8.0%). In the open primary (30 April) Renzi won 69.2% of the vote, as opposed to Orlando's 20.0% and Emiliano's 10.9%.[104][105] On 7 May Renzi was sworn in as secretary again, with Maurizio Martina as deputy, and Orfini was confirmed president.

In the election the PD obtained its worst result ever: 18.7% of the vote, well behind the M5S (32.7%) and narrowly ahead of the Lega (17.4%). Following his party's defeat, Renzi resigned from secretary[106] and his deputy Martina started functioning as acting secretary.

After two months of negotiations and the refusal of the PD to join forces with the M5S,[107] the latter and the Lega formed a yellow-green government, under Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, a M5S-proposed independent. The PD thus returned to opposition after virtually seven years and experienced some internal turmoil as its internal factions started to re-position themselves in the new context. Both Gentiloni and Franceschini distanced from Renzi,[108] while Carlo Calenda, a former minister in Renzi's and Gentiloni's governments who had joined the party soon after the election,[109] proposed to merge the PD into a larger "republican front".[110][111] However, according to several observers, Renzi's grip over the party was still strong and he was still the PD's leader behind the scenes.[112][113]

In July Martina was elected secretary by the party's national assembly and a new leadership election was scheduled for the first semester of 2019.[114] On 17 November 2018 Martina resigned and the national assembly was dissolved, starting the electoral proceedings.[115]

During Martina's tenure, especially after a rally in Rome in September,[116] the party started to prepare for the leadership election.

In the 2019 leadership election, Zingaretti won the first round by receiving 47.4% of the vote among party members in local congresses. He, along with Martina and Giachetti, qualified for the primary election, to be held on 3 March. In the event, Zingaretti was elected secretary, exceeding expectations and winning 66.0% of the vote, while Martina and Giachetti won 22.0% and 12.0%, respectively.[126][127]

In the run-up to the 2019 European Parliament election Zingaretti presented a special logo including a large reference to "We Are Europeans" and the symbol of the PES.[131] Additionally, the party is trying to forge an alliance with the MDP.[132]

There is also a debate on whether the PD is actually a social-democratic party and to what extent. For instance, Alfred Pfaller observed that the PD "has adopted a pronounced centrist-pragmatic position, trying to appeal to a broad spectrum of middle-class and working-class voters, but shying away from a determined pursuit of redistributive goals".[138] For his part, Gianfranco Pasquino observed that "for almost all the leaders, militants and members of the PD, social democracy has never been part of their past nor should represent their political goal", but he also concluded that "its overall identity and perception are by no means those of an European-style social-democratic party".[3]

While traditionally supporting the social integration of immigrants, the PD has adopted a more critical approach on the issue since 2017.[139] Inspired by Renzi, re-elected secretary in April; and Marco Minniti, interior minister since December 2016, the party promoted stricter policies regarding immigration and public security.[140][141] These policies resulted in broad criticism from the left-wing Democrats and Progressives (partners in government) as well as left-leaning intellectuals like Roberto Saviano and Gad Lerner.[142] In August, Lerner, who was among the founding members of the PD, left the party altogether due to its new immigration policies.[143]

It is not an easy task to include the trend represented by Matteo Renzi, whose supporters have been known as "Big Bangers", "Now!", or more frequently Renziani, in any of the categories above. The nature of Renzi's progressivism is a matter of debate and has been linked both to liberalism and populism.[145][145][146][147][148][149] According to Maria Teresa Meli of Corriere della Sera, Renzi "pursues a precise model, borrowed from the Labour Party and Bill Clinton's Democratic Party", comprising "a strange mix (for Italy) of liberal policies in the economic sphere and populism. This means that, on one side, he will attack the privileges of trade unions, especially of the CGIL, which defends only the already protected, while, on the other, he will sharply attack the vested powers, bankers, Confindustria and a certain type of capitalism [...]".[150]

Matteo Renzi, a centrist who led the party in 2013–2018, wanted the party to join both the SI and the PES.[155][156][157] On 20 February 2014 the PD leadership applied for full membership of the PES.[158][159] In Renzi's view, the party would count more as a member of a major European party and within the PES it would join forces with alike parties such as the British Labour Party. On 28 February, the PD was welcomed as a full member into the PES.[79]

The PD includes several internal factions, most of which trace the previous allegiances of party members. Factions form different alliances depending on the issues and some party members have multiple factional allegiances.

Bersaniani and Dalemiani: the social-democratic groups around Bersani and Massimo D'Alema (who wants the PD to be a traditional centre-left party in the European social-democratic tradition); D'Alema organized his faction as Reformists and Democrats, welcoming also some Lettiani and some Populars.

Theo-Dems: a tiny Christian-democratic group representing the right-wing of the party on social issues, albeit being progressive on economic ones; most Theo-Dems, including their leader Paola Binetti, left the PD in 2009–2010 in order to join the UdC or the ApI, while others, led by Luigi Bobba, chose to stay.

un-affiliated social liberals, social democrats and supporters of a broad alliance including Italy of Values, the Radicals and the parties to the left of the PD; after the election, most of them joined Marino in an association named Change Italy.

Olivists: followers of Romano Prodi who want the party to be stuck in the tradition of The Olive Tree; the group, which includes both Christian left exponents and social democrats was led by Arturo Parisi. Most Olivists supported Bersani, while Parisi endorsed Franceschini.

As of September the party's majority was composed of those who supported Bersani since the beginning (divided in five main factions: Bersaniani, Dalemiani, Lettiani, Bindiani and the party's left-wing) and Democratic Area of Franceschini and Fassino. Then, there were two minority coalitions: Veltroni's Democratic Movement (Veltroniani, Fioroni's Populars, ex-Rutelliani, Democratic Ecologists and a majority of Liberal PD members) and Change Italy of Ignazio Marino.[165]

According to Corriere della Sera in November 2011, the party was divided mainly in three ideological camps battling for its soul:

Since November 2011 similar differences surfaced in the party over Monti Cabinet: while the party's right-wing, especially Liberal PD, was enthusiastic in its support, Fassina and other leftists, especially those linked to trade unions, were critical.[168][169][170][171] In February 2012 Fassina published a book in which he described his view as "neo-labourite humanism" and explained it in connection with Catholic social teaching, saying that his "neo-labourism" was designed to attract Catholic voters.[172] Once again, his opposition to economic liberalism was strongly criticized by the party's right-wing as well as by Stefano Ceccanti, a leading Catholic in the party and supporter of Tony Blair's New Labour, who said that a leftist platform à la Fassina would never win back the Catholic vote in places like Veneto.[173]

As the party performed below expectations, more Democrats started to look at Renzi, who had been defeated by Bersani in the 2012 primary election to select the centre-left's candidate for Prime Minister.[175] In early September, two leading centrists, Franceschini and Fioroni, leaders of Democratic Area and The Populars, endorsed Renzi.[176] Also two former leaders of the Democrats of the Left, Veltroni and Fassino,[177] decided to support Renzi, while a third, D'Alema, endorsed Gianni Cuperlo.[178]

The 2014 European Parliament election gave a thumping 40.8% of the vote to the party, which was the first Italian party to get more than 40% of the vote in a nationwide election since DC won 42.4% of the vote in the 1958 general election. In 2014, as usual, the PD did better in Tuscany (56.6%), Emilia-Romagna (52.5%) and Umbria (49.2%), but made significant gains in Lombardy (40.3%, +19.0% from 2009), Veneto (37.5%, +17.2%) and the South.

^Although she was never elected party president, Finocchiaro presided over all the party's meetings since Prodi's resignation, including the national assembly of 20 June 2008 (see video), the national assembly of 21 February 2009 (see video) and the national congress of 11 October 2009 (see video).

Nicola Zingaretti

Nicola Zingaretti is an Italian politician who has served as President of Lazio since 2013. In March 2019, he was elected as Secretary of the Democratic Party.

Dario Franceschini

Dario Franceschini is an Italian lawyer, writer, and politician, who served as the second leader of the Democratic Party.

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Renziani

Renziani, previously known as Now! (Adesso!) and Big Bang, is a liberal and modernizing movement within the Democratic Party (PD), a political party in Italy. Its leader is Matteo Renzi, party's national secretary and former Prime Minister of Italy from February 2014 to December 2016.

Remake Italy

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Giuseppe Civati

Giuseppe "Pippo" Civati is an Italian politician, former leader of Possibile and a member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies from 2013 to 2018.

2017 Democratic Party (Italy) leadership election

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Article One (political party)

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Popular Alternative

Popular Alternative is a Christian-democratic political party in Italy that was founded on 18 March 2017 after the dissolution of New Centre-Right (NCD), one of the two parties that emerged at the break-up of The People of Freedom.

2019 Democratic Party (Italy) leadership election

The 2019 Democratic Party leadership election was an open primary election held on 3 March 2019. The election was triggered by the resignation of Matteo Renzi on 12 March 2018, following the party's defeat at the 2018 general election. Vice Secretary Maurizio Martina was appointed Secretary in July 2018 by the National Assembly, but he resigned after few months to officially start the party's congress.

Great Square

Great Square is a social-democratic and progressive movement within the Democratic Party (PD), a political party in Italy. Its leader is Nicola Zingaretti, President of Lazio region since 2013 and current candidate to PD's leadership in 2019 election. He is considered a social democrat and one of the most prominent members of the party's left-wing. Great Square's members are also known as Zingarettiani from the name of their leader.